


But Here I Blur Into You

by moodlighting



Series: To Be With You [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Kissing, M/M, Massage, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Romance, Schmoop, yusuf's philosophical musings regarding the nature of soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:21:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26058646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moodlighting/pseuds/moodlighting
Summary: Joe had his disagreements with Plato, but perhaps the man had uncovered a greater truth of the universe when he wrote of the original nature of humans, created with a single head made of two faces, split apart by jealous gods in fear of their wholeness. Men condemned to spend their separate lives searching for the matching half of their soul, ever longing to be complete.How the gods must laugh at their own folly, to see he and Nicky together now.Joe, Nicky, and a morning spent together in love.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: To Be With You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1929382
Comments: 25
Kudos: 336





	But Here I Blur Into You

**Author's Note:**

> Started off horny, got pretentious instead...bon appétit.
> 
> Title taken from Pre–Amphibian by Margaret Atwood. All quotes from Plato's The Symposium.

_“And so, when a person meets the half that is his very own...the two are struck from their senses by love, by a sense of belonging to one another, and by desire, and they don't want to be separated from one another, not even for a moment.”_  
\- Plato, The Symposium

  
The villa was quiet when Joe returned. Only the hushed whisper of wind through the olive trees greeted him, the distant chatter of songbirds filtering in through the windows, their white wooden shutters opened inward like the pages of a book. Nicky must have roused long enough to welcome the new day into their home, letting the villa breathe in warm sunlight and fresh, morning air.

In the bright space of their kitchen, Joe paused, closing his eyes and breathing in deeply. He savored the feeling of the cool breeze against the linen of his shirt, the smell of lemons growing ripe in the front garden. Contentment dripped down Joe’s back like liquid honey, slow and sweet. He set aside his keys and left the cloth bags filled from the weekend market behind on the counter, seeking out Nicky to further indulge in the limitless feeling of peace stretching out before him.

He found Nicky in the same place Joe had left him earlier that morning—naked in their bed, a single loose sheet drawn over his waist as he dozed in the mid-morning sun. Spread out on his stomach, Nicky had his arms folded under his pillow, lying loose and relaxed across the mattress with one knee bent up, the perfect picture of ease. His phone laid within reach, face-up next to his pillow, as if Nicky had been using it until he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer.

Joe’s lips quirked in a soft smile. The sight of their warm, mussed bed and Nicky, well-loved in the morning light opened up a tender feeling inside his chest, a glowing gold ember of affection and desire that had never once flickered across their endless stretch of life. How could one man ever tire of a beauty like this, a love like this?

Moving silently, Joe pulled his own shirt over his head, casting it across the back of a chair and climbing onto the bed, careful not to stir Nicky. On hands and knees, he crawled from the foot of the bed up the length of Nicky’s body, nosing slowly along the dip of his spine as it presented itself to him. When he reached the top of Nicky’s shoulders, Joe mouthed a series of long, gentle kisses to the bare skin there, the perfectly curved wing of Nicky’s shoulder blade awaiting him.

With one hand stroking tenderly down his side, Joe could feel Nicky’s answering hum when it came, a contented, rumbling sigh beneath the graze of his palm, a quiet greeting. Nothing else—no words, no glances, no fleeting gestures were needed between them. In all of time, surely no two people had learned and loved each other as completely as he and Nicky. Together, they were one whole.

Joe had his disagreements with Plato, but perhaps the man had uncovered a greater truth of the universe when he wrote of the original nature of humans, created with a single head made of two faces, split apart by jealous gods in fear of their wholeness. Men condemned to spend their separate lives searching for the matching half of their soul, ever longing to be complete.

How the gods must laugh at their own folly, to see he and Nicky together now.

 _The half that is my very own,_ Joe thought, recalling Plato’s words as he pressed a final, lasting kiss to Nicky’s warm skin.

Replacing his mouth with his hands, Joe massaged two thumbs deep into the firm expanse of muscle across Nicky’s shoulders. Where he straddled his hips, Joe let his full weight come to rest against Nicky’s backside. Using the leverage gained from this position, he applied an even pressure to the knot of tension he’d found, bearing down on it until Joe felt the muscle release under his fingers. Nicky groaned appreciatively beneath him, the entire length of his spine seeming to unlock in sequence.

 _At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet_ , Plato also wrote.

Joe let any further thoughts of Plato flutter away in favor of a man far more deserving of his full attention. He concentrated on the feel of Nicky’s body beneath his palms, mesmerized by the supple heat of his skin, marveling at the beautiful strength, the willing give of his muscles. Whatever tension their weeks at the villa had not yet soothed dissolved entirely under the careful work of Joe’s hands.

He massaged from the top of Nicky’s shoulders down to the small of his back, working the heels of his hands into the bottom of his spine, the sloping musculature of his ass, leaving Nicky boneless against the bed. When he finished, he smoothed his palms slowly back up the entire length of Nicky’s body to his shoulders, where he brushed aside the fall of hair at his nape and further applied his hands there. As he kneaded his fingers into the curve of Nicky’s neck, the base of his skull, Joe couldn’t help but lean in again to press a simple kiss to Nicky’s cheek. He watched the smile as it twitched at the corner of Nicky’s mouth.

Joe began to smile too.

Pleased with his work so far, Joe sat back up from his seat atop of Nicky, gently climbing off his body to sit on his heels at his side. With purposeful slowness, Joe drew the sheet from Nicky’s waist, the delicate brush of the fabric making him shiver. He let the sheet drop from his fingers off the side of the bed and onto the floor, where it could no longer tangle around Nicky. Then, returning his hands to Nicky’s shoulders, Joe carefully rolled him onto his back.

Moved by Joe’s strength alone, Nicky flopped inelegantly back against the bed, head lolling against the pillow, his long arms following the momentum of his body, landing sprawled and loose across the mattress. Sated and utterly relaxed, Nicky grinned dreamily up at the ceiling, eyes still closed. His hair was in sleep-mussed disarray, sticking up at odd angles from his head, a dark halo against the white of the pillowcase.

Joe laughed down at him, his heart swelling at the picture of indulgent, boyish pleasure Nicky created. He was half-hard against his thigh from touch alone, from the affection and attention Joe had lavished on his body. It was only one of many avenues available for Joe to pursue, inviting but not insistent. His touch would certainly be welcomed, but Joe recognized Nicky’s arousal as the natural response of his body rather than Nicky’s own expression of desire.

Their passion for each other was a living, waking thing between them, ever simmering just beneath the surface of their love, ardent and unwavering. Joe had never doubted the depth of feeling Nicky had for him, the desire they shared equally, as unquestioned as the air they breathed. As enduring as the life with which they’d both been graced, together, two halves weaved whole. _To make one out of two, to heal the wound of human nature._

Leaning in to brush the hair away from Nicky’s eyes, Joe stroked his hands reverently down Nicky’s face, thumbs tracing the curve of his cheekbones to delicately cup his jaw in his palms. He nudged his nose against Nicky’s, turning his head just so to fit the perfectly matched shape of their mouths together.

Nicky breathed out a blissful sigh against Joe’s lips, his breath warm, his mouth hotter as their lips parted together.

Every kiss felt like their first, their thousandth, their last.

They traded kisses slowly, indulgently, smiling into every touch, happiness blooming with every kiss Joe pressed to the arched bow of Nicky’s lip, every lingering caress of his hands. When Nicky tilted his chin just as Joe favored, licking into his mouth with the unhurried ease of a man content to spend hours lost in kisses, Joe hummed and met his mouth with equal devotion. When Joe nibbled a trail across the angle of Nicky’s jawline, ducking down to plant kiss after kiss to his neck, Nicky laughed, a gorgeous ringing sound across the quiet of the morning.

Moments such as these were not rare between them, but Joe treasured each of them as if they were the rarest, most precious jewels on earth, coveted and without equal. Every memory he held close to his chest, right next to his heart where it beat out the same rhythm as Nicky’s.

No one was more dear to him than Nicky, nothing more beloved than their belonging to each other, the quiet, shared intimacies belonging singularly to themselves. No words in any language Joe had learned across history were fit to express the wholeness of the love he felt, the love he shared with Nicky.

They were one heart, one head with two faces; complete, together.

Gradually, their kisses tapered off, reaching their natural conclusion. With his face tucked into the curve of Nicky’s neck, his head supported in the dip of his shoulder, Joe let the full weight of his body come to rest across the length of Nicky’s. No space remained between them, their bare skin pressed together, chest to chest. Feeling having finally returned to his limbs, Nicky lifted his arms and wound them around Joe’s back, hugging him tightly to him, holding him impossibly closer.

Joe sank into Nicky’s embrace, feeling the rise and fall of every breath he took. Where his hand still cupped the side of Nicky’s neck, Joe stroked his thumb across the delicate skin there, back and forth with mindless affection. Joe closed his eyes and breathed deeply, content in the simplicity of their touch, the morning breeze idly shifting the curtains above their heads, the honeyed stillness surrounding them in peace.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3
> 
> [fic post](https://mooodlighting.tumblr.com/post/627216433669095424/but-here-i-blur-into-you) | [my writing blog](https://mooodlighting.tumblr.com)


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